Lottery jackpot – 99% of us would give some winnings away

Ahead of the biggest ever National Lottery jackpot tonight, new research shows that 99 per cent of UK lottery players would give at least some of the money away if they scooped the top prize.

Polling commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation this week ahead of the record estimated £57.8 million draw suggests that most ticketholders would give away millions to charities, friends, family and even colleagues if they struck lucky tonight.

The research, carried out by Populus, found that people are more likely to ensure good causes feel the benefit of a multimillion pound win than their friends or colleagues.

81% of ticketholders would give some money to charity

97% would give money to family

72% would give money to friends

22% would give money to colleagues

And only 1% said they would keep the winnings all to themselves.

And, when it comes to dividing up the winnings, people are likely to give away the biggest share to family, followed by charities. Based on tonight’s estimated £57.8 million jackpot, people, on average, said they would give away:

£17 million to family - the equivalent of 70 new Lamborghinis or 9,000 Rolex watches.

£6 million to charity

£4 million to friends

£750,000 to colleagues

And £3 million to other

The massive estimated £57.8m jackpot - the biggest ever offered by the game - has to be won tonight and would make Lotto’s biggest winner to date, or a host of multi-millionaires.

The Charities Aid Foundation is a UK-based international charity which supports other charities and helps businesses and people to give to causes they care about, from regular giving through to wealthy philanthropists.

Amy Clarke, Head of the Private Clients team at CAF, which advises people looking to give large sums of money to charity, said:

“People in the UK are among the most generous in the world, and of course you don’t need to be a millionaire to make a huge difference to the causes you care about. This weekend’s jackpot winner will be in a unique position to join a growing number of wealthy givers. Philanthropists have the opportunity to resolve some of the world’s biggest challenges and test out new ideas.

“Once the winner has done all the things they want to do they will inevitably ask themselves what they want to be remembered for. Why not be remembered for achieving something remarkable for others?

“A CAF Trust is an excellent alternative to a foundation and gives you all the positives of giving and donating without any of the hassle.”

CAF has set out five key things to consider, should you find yourself looking to make a donation tomorrow:

Define what you feel strongly or passionate about. Fulfilment and inspiration are important. What change do you want to bring about?

Seek advice both in terms of how you want to structure your philanthropy and how you want to then manage your philanthropic money.

Treat it like any other investment. You have a purpose and a goal for an investment and you know what you want it to do.

Be brave and be bold. Have a healthy appetite to innovate and take risks.

Find a philanthropy ‘buddy’ - someone who you can learn from and share with, test out ideas and have fun.

NOTES

1 Populus interviewed a random sample of 1077 GB adults aged 18+ from its online panel between January 6th and January 7th 2016. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. Further information at www.populus.co.uk.